Actor and director Peter Weller is known for his many film and television roles, most famously Robocop in Paul Verhoeven’s campy classic. However, Weller’s interests go far beyond the camera—he is a scholar of Italian Renaissance art who is completing… More»
If Karl Rove had lived in ancient Rome, he might have written something like Commentariolum Petitiones, a down-and-dirty electioneering guide from 64 B.C. just published in English by Princeton University Press as How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide… More»
This Sunday the Getty Research Institute and the Getty Museum are teaming up to present Arthur Schnitzler and Vienna 1900. The program begins with a staged reading of Arthur Schnitzler—Being Jewish. Based on the journals and correspondence of renowned Austrian… More»
Novelist Lindsey Davis has devoted her career to entertaining readers with zesty whodunits set in ancient Rome. Famed for her ability to evoke ancient life down to its sounds and smells, as well as for her clever plots full of… More»
Horses have been the subject of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and other renderings for thousands of years. They have been depicted as companions of man, within picturesque landscapes, and in dynamic races, chases, and battles. Anne Woollett, curator of paintings at… More»
A “fashion revolution” in the Middle Ages? Yes, says art historian Roger Wieck, curator of Illuminating Fashion: Dress in the Art of Medieval France and the Netherlands at the Morgan Library. Just as art was changing with the dawn of… More»
Begins with an introduction by Karol Wight, senior curator of antiquities. Audience Q&A follows. Running time: 59:04 | Download (MP3 file, 55.4 MB) For centuries, Americans and Europeans saw the lands of the Bible—known variously as Palestine, western Syria, and… More»
Update—We’ve posted video excerpts from Patrick McGovern’s talk. See below for his discussion of Midas Touch, here for Chateau Jiahu, and here for Theobroma. What ancient brews were served at the funeral feast of King Midas, or his father Gordius,… More»
Opening this week at the Getty Center is Paris: Life & Luxury, which traces the refined activities that took place inside a luxurious Parisian town house of the mid-1700s. On the streets outside such a house, however, occurred one activity… More»
Update: video of this lecture is available here. Amid the moon-like landscape of the Sinai, the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine has stood unfailing for 17 centuries, unaltered by invasion or conquest. Imagine a place rooted in the ancient world… More»
Medieval methods of entertainment included sad dances and alienation parties.
Tights are not pants, circa 1400something.